Tuesday, December 3, 2013

You all have no doubt seen the fabulous mailbox pictures posted online months ago that some midcentury fanatic had painted in a snazzy two-tone color scheme. Well, we had always been intending to replace our mailbox. It was the standard-issue metal mailbox for a post that was flat on bottom, rounded on top. The previous owners of our house were big-time downhill skiers so on each side of the mailbox post was a downhill ski whose tip stuck up into the air and curved away from the mailbox. Friends who were skiers thought it was cute but it had to go. I had been looking at mailboxes forever and all the ones I liked were really modern and in the $400 price range. I really wanted something old and something cheap! So when I saw the picture of the two-tone mailboxes, I knew that's what I wanted. So for the next few months, any time I drove around town, I kept an eye out for a mailbox that size and shape (and in black), thinking maybe we could offer to buy it from its owner. I drove around for months before finally spotting one. I was so excited. My husband John went to the door and offered to buy them a new mailbox and do the work of replacing it and they looked at him like he was nuts. No go. That didn't stop us. Now we were more determined than ever. We HAD to have that mailbox!! We drove around one afternoon looking at people's yards and mailboxes. And we found another one! This time I had the picture of the two-toned one on my phone and I was prepared to show them what we wanted to do with their mailbox. We walked up the sidewalk, knocked on the door, introduced ourselves, and said we had a crazy request. Before we got any farther, the woman said, "I know you! You're my mechanic!" Well, it was smooth sailing from there. The woman bought herself a new mailbox, we paid her back and installed it, and the coveted mailbox was ours. John went right to work on it and within the week we had a new mailbox! He added the aluminum piece at the front and the rest was done with spray paint.

So - we're total copy cats but we love our mailbox! And I have looked at so many mailboxes that I now jokingly call myself a Professional Mailbox Design Consultant. :-)

John's big project this summer was building a shed in the back yard. We had an old one back there but it was in bad shape and needed to be replaced so John designed a new bigger one. He read up online how to do it and planned and planned. He'd never done framing or construction before except for building a few decks on houses we've owned. We wanted it to look like the sheds made by Modern Shed. We went for that basic look although we ended up using the same vertical siding that our house has instead of the pricier (but beautiful!) stuff that Modern Shed uses. Anyway, we're very happy with our new shed, here are some before and after pictures....Here's the old one, behind that forsythia bush, with the Shell sign on it - and John is back in the corner where the new one is going -

And here's the new one with the Shell sign on it -

Here's John tearing down the old one, after he removed the forsythia and the juniper next to the shed, with the new shed in the back. Really opened the yard up -

And now it's the holiday season. Our Christmas albums are up on the wall - hopefully the aluminum tree will go up soon - happy holidays to all!!